Monday, February 3, 2014

How To Choose the Perfect Rug Measurements

Hey everyone!

Have a good weekend? It was the first weekend of Winterlude here in Ottawa so we spent some time skating on the canal, did a little skiing and of course...the Superbowl. Well, Mr. Fix-It watched the game with his buddies and I of course, watched the half-time show. How awesome was Bruno Mars? I was doing some serious couch dancing!

So, do you have a rug in your house that's too small? Or looking for that perfect rug but not sure how big it should be? Shopping for a rug can be tough and overwhelming. It's hard to know what size to buy and often people end up buying the 4X6 or 5X7 because it's cheaper than the 6X8 or 8X10 that their space probably needs. In the end, you've spent less money BUT you're rug is too small for your space, your room looks like it's floating and you've wasted your moolah. No fun.

Here are some tips to follow when searching for that perfect rug:

Get that furniture on the rug!

When measuring for a rug, make sure your measurements account for the seating furniture to touch the rug. You don't want your rug to look like it's floating in the room. It will only make the space look smaller.
You can either have all the furniture fully on the rug...

OR have the front legs on and back legs off...

If the rug is going under the dining room table, all the chairs should still be on the rug even when they are pulled out to sit down. This way the chairs won't scratch the floor and your guests won't be half on the rug and half on the hardwood floor.

A good formula to follow is: measure the width and length of your table and add 18-24' to each of the four sides.
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Sometimes the standard sizes of rugs just don't work for your room. You may have a long and narrow room where an 8X10 just won't work. Go to a carpet store and likely you can get them to cut a piece of carpet they have ( they will probably have a zillion different styles) to the size you want and have them serge the edges. That's what we did in our house. You could get them to add a fab trim...

You would be shocked at how inexpensive it actually is. Yup, I have dreams of having a pure white rug in our living room, but enter in our three kids which means 6 sticky-peanut-butter-filled hands = forget it!

Rug Shapes

Most standard rug sizes are rectangle and that's because they work in many spaces. Round rugs are cute for kids spaces, front halls etc. That's about it. If you have a round room, go for it but that doesn't happen too often. Square rugs, for square rooms only.

Under the Bed

Rugs can be pricey so putting an entire rug under the bed and only seeing a smidge of it is annoying. I get it. Measure your rug so that 2/3 is under the bed. It will look fab.

Diane, that's a great question. Yes, it is possible to have two separate rugs but I would only do this if you room is extremely large. I would go with one large rug to ground the room and create cohesion between the two sitting areas.

Meredith, That isn't my dining room carpet but we had our living room and stair runner done at "End of the Roll" and the stair runner was serged with the black trim. I love the classic look with the band also.

Welcome to KEEP IT BEAUTIFUL DESIGNS! If you love home design, DIYs, fashion, travel & tips then this is your spot! Join me as I share the journey of renovating our 100 year old home in Ottawa, ON to create beautiful spaces to raise our 3 small children and be house proud. Small or big, all spaces deserve to be beautiful and functional for real life and with real life budgets. Oh and did I mention that I love a fabulous bottle of red!